Not the real Gale Gilbert

Chip Kelly's nickname was "Big Balls" Kelly before he came into the NFL. He made similar decisions on 4th and 1 yesterday. Is there something about the NFL that makes coaches turtle? Inexplicable loss, but I can't say Marrone deserves to be fired. He'll just be replaced by some other stuffed clown who won't live up to his reputation. At least the team appears to be moving in the right direction heading into next year.

If the Bills get into the playoffs, it will most likely be because of the defense, I agree. To take that point further, because the road to the playoffs will have involved knocking off at least 2 of 3 teams led by Manning, Rodgers, and Brady, the narrative will change. The conversation will turn from "how the Bills wasted a playoff caliber D" to " this is a once in a generation type of defense that can win the Super Bowl." That's IF they get into the playoffs this season.

Predictions based on data are THE WORST! However, your reasoning looks pretty good... I'm going with my heart: Bills 31 (I'm counting on a D/ST score) Broncos 28

Hey, not all new/infrequent posters are bad. Now, as for the original question...I don't understand. Perhaps that's why I don't post a lot. I do think that if the Bills can't split these next two games, the Oakland game will probably not hold tremendous significance. See? It's that kind of hard-hitting analysis that you're missing out on when you turn your nose up at new posters. Da Bills.

I have 4 fantasy football teams, and I'm great.

F He didn't play a playoff game. His passer rating is lower than that of Fitz,. Most of us were happy to see Fitz lose the staring job. He's an NFL caliber backup. This is my opinion. You can't say that Orton is an NFL caliber passer and call it a fact.

Folks, Orton is terrible. He makes horrible decisions. You get nothing more from starting him over EJ, unless you want 7-9 or 8-8. This season, for better or worse, is better spent determining whether or not Manuel can figure it out. If he does, he's better than Orton. If not, well, you'd get the same results with Orton.

I generally agree, but last year, Arizona, Carolina, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, all outperformed their over/under by at least 2 games last year. I see 9-7 as their best case scenario (2.5 wins above). 5-11 as their worst. Split the difference and most likely they will be 7-9. Wahoo!

Misleading headline most likely written to generate clicks. If it were a newspaper article, it would be in the "quick hits" on the last page of the Sports section at best, and without its own headline.

Booing doesn't make a fan base look bad. It's one of two ways the fans can be heard en masse, aside from leaving the stadium early to reveal an empty lower bowl in the 4th quarter. It's not just a message to the players on the team, but to the coaches and front office as well. If you buy a ticket for any game- exhibition or not- with the intention of staying until the last play, and the product you've shown up to support resembles a group of donkeys trying to build a playground, what are you supposed to do? Sit on your hands and grind your teeth? Is that what makes a passionate fan base? Is that really better form than booing? I've lived in New York and Philadelphia. These places have fans that boo all of the time. I'll bet Boston does, too. It doesn't show up that often on SportsCenter unless people start throwing things the field. For Goodwin to complain about it is reactionary.

We can consider next year's missing #1 pick to be a rehabbed (?) Kiko Alonso.

Just tackle Ingram. Then Thurman gets the ball more. Game over.

How are compensatory picks determined? It's just a count of who goes out vs. who comes in? I figured that we'd get something because Byrd walked this year.

There were sports talk shows in 1986? Maybe one talk show, right? I was 6 years old, though so I could be wrong. I remember Art Wander on weeknights on WGR in the early '90s but I don't know if he went back that far. Kelly was a bit different though. Dunno if this was mentioned earlier but I think you have to account for his years in the USFL.

I see your point, but I don't know if this week was the week to bring it up. I don't care how much discretion the NFL refs actually have, there's no way you can set up what happened in the 4th quarters of the Eagles-Lions and Ravens-Vikings games. This is without mentioning the Patriots-Browns. Regarding the Pats, I also don't believe that there's a conspiracy that the league and the refs are supporting for the Pats to make deep runs in the playoffs, but I do buy into the idea that they were cheating years ago and that it's not necessarily over now. 3 weeks ago, they are down at home 24-0 against the Broncos, and miraculously figure out how to play them in the 2nd half. Last week, they're down 17-7 at home and win - not that unusual, but then today, down 19-3, they make a 2nd half run with the aid of the refs. This doesn't happen to them on the road. Houston Texan players were vocal about this last week as well. It doesn't exactly make Pats home games must-see TV.

Dunno if it's been said yet but every time Bucky Brooks touched the ball I was wound up with anxiety, as I expected him to run around the field Tecmo-Bowl style. All that guy did was run right into kickoff coverage. Boring. Todd Collins, Lonnie Johnson, and Mike Williams are on my list, but I wasn't as wrong about them as I was about Brooks. I've been 100% right about every other player, otherwise.

Bills vs Dolphins isn't a big deal anymore. Hasn't been since 2003, when the Pats started racking up AFC East crowns.

It was John Harbaugh for kicking the field goal instead of going for it on 4th and 5 with 5:43 left in the 4th quarter. Glad that the Bills were finally the beneficiary of an opposing coach's conservatism.

Dumb headline. Teams have no choice but to "target" the defense their facing.

I wanted to create a tee-shirt for the winner and loser of my fantasy football league this season. I also wanted to put the past winners names on the back. I want to put a picture of a television character on the front of each shirt. Is there a website that any of you know of where I will be allowed to do this? Am I going to run into copyright problems? Thanks

I remember last summer, I was out of town and settled on listening to Cowherd on the radio while I was driving. He opened his show by insisting that he wouldn't talk about Tebow, then spent about 15 minutes saying why he wouldn't talk about Tebow. I got out of the car or changed stations or whatever, but when I checked back in after about 90 minutes, he was still talking about Tebow. He's an imbecile. I never had much of a problem with Whitner, but I also didn't mind it that he left.

You can find replacement RB's late in the draft for cheap.

I also think Carter's role as a media blowhard helped grease the wheels of his election tram.

Snubbing Reed is an injustice, but now that Carter goes in, his path is clearer. It's difficult to objectively look at the numbers of both Reed and Carter and say Reed had a better career. Their careers were concurrent for 14 seasons, and the statistics heavily favor Carter, despite Reed's role in on the AFC Championship teams and his performance in the playoffs. If you haven't seen it, check out the stat comparisons between Reed, Carter, Tim Brown, and the other HOF receivers. I think Reed will be in by 2015. http://www.profootballhof.com/story/2013/1/25/2013-finalists-vs-hof-receivers/

I'm thinking that Kelly might have heard that the NCAA is going to come down on Oregon more forcefully than he originally thought, and thought better of spurning the NFL again.